On My Way
by ocean23
Summary: She doesn't belong here. During the day, she hardly says a word. She hardly even knows her own name. Late at night, though, when everyone else is asleep, she dances under the light of the moon. She doesn't belong...but there's no where else for her to go.
1. Waiting

**This is the first fanfic I've written in a long time, and the first one that I've ever written for Naruto. Honestly, it's also the first fic I've published that I plan on writing more than one chapter for. But on to other things.**

**I've got a little challenge for you, readers: see if you can figure out who the main character is. See if you can do it before I reveal her name in later chapters. Good luck.**

**Disclaimer: If I owned Naruto, then my profile would say that I'm from Japan, not...never mind. You know what, let's just say that I own nothing and leave it at that.**

She stood there, watching him go. He never even looked back at her, not caring that, yet again, he had left her in tears. One minor error, one small mistake in her lessons, and he'd done everything but call her a failure. He didn't need to say it, though; the look in his eyes when he had gazed upon her said it for him. To him, she wasn't even worth the time of day...or even the effort of calling her by name.

As she watched his tall frame disappear around the corner of the hall, she silently wondered, as she had so many times before, why she had to call him father, when he barely even called her daughter.

Wiping away the tears, she turned away from the direction her father had gone in, mentally preparing herself for the long wait that remained until bedtime. She'd once read somewhere that a day was twenty-four hours long, but often seemed longer. Sometimes, it took all of the learned patience she possessed to get through a day, so eager was she for nightfall. Even when things were at their bleakest, the rising of the moon meant that the day was at an end, and the night was about to begin.

She never noticed the young man approaching from the opposite end of the hallway until it was too late.

No one was to blame for what happened, really. The girl's mind had been lost in thought, and the boy's line of sight had been blocked by a large stack of books he'd been carrying. You can guess what happened, can't you?

They crashed into each other like George of the Jungle crashes into trees: dead center, and with a lot of noise.

Almost immediately, the man was on his feet and offering her his hand, ignoring the fallen books and apologizing profusely all the while. "My lady, I-I-I-I'm so sorry. I wasn't watching where I was going, a-a-and I apologize...You're not hurt, are you? I'm new around here, and-"

"Slow down, slow down," the young noblewoman, taking the proffered hand and allowing him to help her back onto her feet. She wasn't helpless, but even the most independent people will need help getting up if they were wearing a bulky dress too. "I'm not hurt."

Looking the young man up and down, she quickly guessed that he was a servant, if the uniform he wore was anything to go by. He wasn't from around here; that much was clear. Light-coloured hair wasn't something found in a population of black-haired individuals, and blue eyes, while not unheard of, were a blue-moon occurance in this area, at least among the common folk.

"Are you sure you're alright?" he asked again, looking at her face as if searching for possible hidden pain. Despite his foreign appearance, his voice betrayed no trace of an accent, meaning he either had a gift for languages...or he was from here or a neighbouring estate. Suddenly, as if remembering his station as a servant, his blue-eyed gaze shifted from her face to her feet. "I mean, are you sure you're alright, my lady?"

Unsettled by the sudden change in his demeanor, she only answered with a murmured 'yes' before turning away, leaving him to pick up the dropped books on his own. She would have helped him...but it was one of those things that simply wasn't done. A servant was meant to serve the nobles, the nobles meant to give the servants their orders. Never was a noble to aid a servant in their work; those were the unwritten rules of life, or so she'd been told.

_If only I wasn't who I am..._she thought.

She hated being a noble, hated all the rules and behaviours and names and titles she was forced to memorize.

At night, though, for a few glorious hours, she forgot those silly things...while she danced.

**Any guesses so far? I'll give you a hint: in one episode, naruto actually does see her dancing near a stream. **

**Until next time.**

**ocean23**

**PS Check out the story I'm betaing. It's called "Stuck in the Past", and it's really worth the read.**


	2. Under the Moon

The first time that she had danced, she'd only been ten years old. As was common with beginners, she had lacked the grace and poise of her more experienced counterparts. She'd enjoyed the lessons, for they were challenging to her physically in a way that her normal studies would never allow for. Her father never took that into consideration. As it was with anything that concerned his daughter, he only saw her lack of talent as just another way that she'd failed him.

She'd watched wordlessly as her dancing instructor was sent away, only half-listening as her father told her that she was never to dance again.

That night, when the moon was high and the last light went out, she snuck out into the courtyard...and she danced.

~2~

Late at night, when she thought no one else was awake, she danced.

She never knew the reason as to why she snuck did it, nor understood what exactly caused her body's clumsy movements to vanish. There was never any music to guide her feet, no rhythm to dictate the motioning of her hands, for she danced to music that only she could hear.

No one knew of her nocturnal activities, least of all her father. She knew that such an activity would have been outlawed immediately if he found out; she also knew that when it came to her dancing, she would never listen to any rules or dictates he would attempt to lay down. She would disobey without any hesitation; her midnight ballets had become too much a part of her for her to give it up now. Still, keeping her dancing a secret was a double-edged sword: no one knew about it, and because of that, there was no one there to join her under the light of the waxing and waning moon.

She didn't know why she wanted a dancing partner; the only reason she could think of was...she didn't want to dance alone.


End file.
